One of the chief differences between an adult and a juvenile is that the adult knows when he is an ass while the juvenile never does.

The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.

A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.

The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty.

Those who see their lives as spoiled and wasted crave equality and fraternity more than they do freedom. If they clamor for freedom, it is but freedom to establish equality and uniformity.

To grow old is to grow common. Old age equalizes -- we are aware that what is happening to us has happened to untold numbers from the beginning of time. When we are young we act as if we were the first young people in the world.